The next time you buy a beer, soda or nachos at a stadium, there is a good chance Yellow Dog Software is working somewhere behind the scenes.
The company’s inventory software is trusted by more than half of professional sports teams. It helps operators manage what comes in, what gets sold and what is left when the crowd goes home.
That means the systems helping track the rush before kickoff, the lines at halftime and the final sales of the night were built by a team in Hampton Roads.
Now, after nearly 20 years of building, Yellow Dog Software has been acquired by Fraxion, a Seattle-based spend management company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
It is a meaningful moment for the company, its employees and its customers. It is also a reminder of what is possible for businesses built here.
Starting a business in Hampton Roads does not mean limiting the size of the opportunity. A company can begin here, hire here, serve customers around the world and reach a real end goal, whether that is an acquisition, an IPO or another major outcome.
Yellow Dog began in 2007 when founder Jay Livingood saw a gap in the market. Resorts and hospitality businesses needed a better way to manage retail inventory. The company started with $10,000 and grew by solving the next problem customers put in front of it.
First came retail. Then food and beverage. Then concessions.
Those are different businesses with different demands. A resort may need to manage inventory across gift shops, restaurants and lodging. A stadium has a much tighter window. Thousands of people arrive, food and merchandise move quickly across dozens or hundreds of locations, and operators need to know what happened when the event ends.
Yellow Dog built for those environments.
Today, its platform is used by more than 900 customers across 1,600 venues and more than 20,000 outlets. The company works across sports and entertainment, hospitality, restaurants, casinos, clubs, higher education and other high-volume operations.
Its software does not run the point-of-sale system. It connects with it.
That distinction matters in modern venues, where an operator may use multiple systems for traditional concession stands, mobile ordering, self-checkout and merchandise. Yellow Dog gives the operator one view of the inventory moving through all of it.
“We’ve got a very specific job to do,” Livingood said. “Our job is to let them do that job really, really fast so they can continue on their passion.”
For the people using the software, the work is not just about tracking inventory. It is about getting time back. Livingood describes innovation simply as “getting people home for supper” by making slow, difficult work faster.
Fraxion’s acquisition brings Yellow Dog’s inventory capabilities together with its own software for purchasing, expenses, accounts payable and payments. The combined companies aim to give customers a clearer view of the full path from purchase to what is received, used and still on hand.
Yellow Dog will continue operating from its Norfolk office, and Fraxion says customers should see no disruption to existing products, implementations or support.
Last year, Livingood was named Entrepreneur of the Year at 757 TechNite. This acquisition is another recognition of what Yellow Dog has built: a company that began with a small investment, grew through hard work and customer trust, and now helps power some of the biggest venues in sports and hospitality.
The next time you are in a stadium line, there is a good chance the system behind it has a Hampton Roads story. And for the people building the region’s next companies, it is proof that the finish line can be much bigger than the place where you started.
